I mentioned last week that I had signed up for an 18-day virtual meditation retreat that started on Election Day.<\/p>\n
It was the smartest thing I\u2019ve done all year.<\/p>\n
I was a little stressed as I watched returns on Election Day itself; I remember 2016 all too well. But on Wednesday, when it started to become obvious that the Biden-Harris team was going to win, I got calm.<\/p>\n
And I\u2019ve stayed that way.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not that I\u2019m sanguine about all the challenges ahead. I already sent money to Fair Fight Action for the Georgia Senate runoffs.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m worried about a lot of things. The Republicans seem to have become a cult. The moderate Democrats seem to be under the illusion that we can just go back to \u201cnormal\u201d even though it\u2019s obvious that ship has sailed.<\/p>\n
And while our local races here in Oakland went well \u2014 we\u2019re going to have a more progressive city council this time around \u2014 that just means that we\u2019ve got a better chance of getting our voices heard. It doesn\u2019t mean we don\u2019t have to work to get something meaningful done.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m concerned about a lot of things, but I\u2019m not freaking out. And that is truly wonderful. <\/p>\n
Meditation starts me off each day in a good frame of mind, despite the fact that I\u2019m getting up way too early to attend the virtual retreat. (I plan to keep meditating when the retreat ends, but I am going to do it later in the morning. 5:30 am is too early for me.)<\/p>\n
One of the ways I\u2019m holding onto that good frame of mind is to avoid the people panicking on social media and the many news articles about all the horrors that are facing us. I read carefully and skip a lot of commentary.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m even pretty calm about the pandemic right now, though I am reading all that news carefully and am very worried about the rising numbers. In fact, I wrote my county supervisor this morning to encourage him to keep Alameda County closed as much as they can. We have better numbers than most, but that is not good enough.<\/p>\n
Paying attention is very important, but panic isn\u2019t useful. Keeping my center helps with that.<\/p>\n
This retreat is focused on a form of meditation called the Union of Three Hearts, with the idea of uniting Heaven, Earth, and ourselves. It\u2019s part of Sheng Zhen Qigong. https:\/\/shengzhen.org\/<\/p>\n
When I think of Heaven, I think of the Milky Way. When Master Li Junfeng talks of Earth, he often mentions the natural world.<\/p>\n
Today, as I was sitting, I remembered a couple of lines from a great Joni Mitchell song:<\/p>\n
\u00a0We are stardust. We are golden.
\nAnd we got to get ourselves back to the garden.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nHere\u2019s a video of Joni singing it in 1970.<\/p>\n